KJelloLove

Only took me a few years to finally explain the rules (its hard to do via text):

The game is for 2-10 players. Every player starts with ten cards, and they are dealt face down by the designated dealer. The rest of the cards are placed in a Draw Pile face down just like regular UNO.

The first player is normally the player to the left but everything is backwards in prison so the person to the RIGHT of the dealer goes first and gameplay follows a counter clockwise direction. Once everyone has 10 cards its usually a good idea to take a second to organize your cards from speciality on the left to highest number 1-9 on the right of your hand. The dealer then places a card from the ‘draw’ pile face down in the center of the table. Once every player views his/her cards the dealer counts 3,2,1 go and flips the center table card. Its technically the person to the right of the dealers turn but in prison you can get “jumped” so its now a blitz to try and match cards in your hand to the center table card no matter who’s turn it is.

In regular UNO you have to match either by the number, color, or the symbol/Action. For instance, if the center card is a red card that is an 8, when its your turn you have to place either a red card or a card with an 8 on it. You can also play a Wild card (which can alter current color in play). In prison uno anyone who has a red 8 can 'jump’ in and play that card no matter the order but in order to jump you have to have the same number. If there is a yellow 8 on the table, you can jump in with a red 8 or a blue 8. When you jump you HAVE to say “jump in” if it is not your turn. If you jump in and don’t say jump in there is a 2 card penalty and that player has to pick up two cards. If there is a yellow 8 on the pile you cannot jump in with any random card. It HAS to be an 8 or whatever the number is. YOU CAN ONLY JUMP IF ITS THE SAME NUMBER – it doesn’t matter about color.

Once a player jumps in it is the next person to their right’s turn… that is unless THEY get jumped and then it becomes the the turn of the player to the right of the last person who jumped in.

PENALTY CARDS ARE PROGRESSIVE which means. If you play a draw two… the person after you can play a draw two (of any color) and now the person after them has to draw four… and so on and so on. It now gets tricky because with jump ins ANYONE who has a draw two can screw over the player after them. Same with draw fours! So friendships are in danger (I’ve seen a draw 16 combo before sooo)

Progressive penalties get tricky with reverses. Its the dealers job to keep track of which way the order is going. What I do is once the first reverse gets thrown I point to my left or right to show the new direction order, then every time a new player jumps in with a reverse i just switch my finger direction from left or right quickly until everyone is done.

YOU CANNOT play draw fours on top of draw twos or vice versa. For progressive penalties. Those have to match too. 

Thats all the prison side of how the game is played. Now the California side of things: any card in you hand can be doubled up. So if you have a blue four and a red four, you can play them together at the same time. California means you can just double up your cards when playing. If you have two draw fours… play them and the person after you has to draw 8 cards… just be careful because now the player before you in rotation can jump in and now YOU have to draw twelve cards. Still follow?

So when you jump in you can also jump with 2 cards. If I play a yellow five, you can jump in with a blue five AND a red five even if its not your turn.

Ready for another layer of tricky? Good. If One player plays multiple skips or multiple reverses they only count as ONE. So if I play five skips on my turn only the person after me gets skipped. Same with reverses- if I play multiple reverses it only counts as one so dealer keep that in mind when you’re pointing.

If it is your turn and you do not have a playable card, you draw from draw deck until you find one. Not the standard draw one card and move on rule here.